Shocking, I Know

As I'm writing this, I'm actually working on a reflective essay for my uni, but it's got me thinking a little bit about culture shock. Prior to leaving for Japan, I was very anxious. I was told by lots of people that I would experience culture shock and, whilst that's totally ok, it was also something I should be prepared to experience. The truth is though, now that I think back, I don't think I ever really experienced culture shock.

If you do a bit of reading online, you will quickly see that culture shock is usually broken down into stages (thanks Wikipedia):

1. The Honeymoon Stage: Every little thing is amazing and exciting and life is as if you were looking through rose tinted glasses. You may remember this phase from your last relationship
2. The Negotiation Stage: The honeymoon period is over and all those little quirks that you used to love now kind of piss you off and remind you of how they were better back at home. This is the phase most commonly referred to as culture shock, and people experience this at different points into their time abroad.
3. The Adjustment Stage: This is where you realise that things are different and that's ok, you just need to find a way to live your life in a way that suits both you and your environment.
4. The Adaptation Stage: This is the point at which Japan becomes you and you become Japan. Or something like that. You no longer feel as though you are in a 'foreign country' but instead feel as though you are living in your second home. This would also be the ideal time to have friends and family come visit you so that you can show off how comfortable you are and how much you know about your local area.

The fact is, when I think back over these last four months, I feel like I missed out those two middle stages, and if I'm totally honest, I didn't really spend that much time as phase one either. I remember talking to my mum on the phone during my second week here and commenting on the fact that I didn't feel like I was in a foreign country, I felt like I was just at home. I don't know exactly why that is, but I have a few theories.

Up until I came to Japan, my exposure to it's culture had been fairly limited. But the exposure that I did have was not quite as 'sensational' as that of (I assume) many other people. What I mean by that is, of course I'd seen a whole bunch of Studio Ghibli films, but beyond that, I was never a big fan of sushi, opting for other, less widely popular Japanese cuisine, and I was never all that into Lolita fashion or the Kawaii culture that had taken a hold in the western world. I knew I liked the idea of Japan and it's culture, food and art, but I wasn't hugely taken by these pop-motifs, so I ended up enjoying the more 'normal', everyday parts of Japanese culture. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, when I came to Japan, I wasn't expecting 'Land of the Rising Sun; home to all that is cute, crazy and over the top!', I was expecting 'Japan; a place where people live and do stuff'. Growing up in London, I knew that there were parts of London that were crazy and weird (and sometimes a little sordid) and that there were parts of London that were incredibly mundane, just that the mundane parts don't get so much media attention. I guess I figured that Japan would be much the same.

Maybe it's normal not to experience culture shock, and maybe I will experience culture shock some time in the future when I visit Japan again, who knows. I'm just glad that I didn't get homesick.